shape-shifting chembot (liquid robot or a chemical robot)

In artificial intelligence (AI), a Turing Test is a method of inquiry for determining whether or not a computer is capable of thinking like a human being. The test is named after Alan Turing, an English mathematician who pioneered machine learning during the 1940s and 1950s.

A shape-shifting chembot, also called a liquid robot or a chemical robot, is a mobile robot that can alter its shape and other physical characteristics to do things that it could not do in its normal form.

In late March 2007, DARPA submitted a request for proposal ( RFP ), seeking plans for a chembot. Their specifications: "soft, flexible, mobile objects that can identify and manoeuvre through openings smaller than their static structural dimensions."

Significant properties of chembots include the following:

Flexibility in three dimensions

The ability to break apart and reform

Support of autonomous or remotely controlled modes

Ability to withstand extremes of temperature, pressure, humidity and radiation

Flexible external "skin" that can withstand stress without rupturing

Backbone structure that allows reconstitution to original physical shape and dimensions

Tactile sensing

Ability to carry hard and soft payloads without damaging them or being damaged by them.

If realized, such a chembot could travel over considerable distances carrying an embedded payload , change shape and size as required, and then reconstitute to its original form. The DARPA document likens the proposed abilities of the chembot to characteristics already displayed in nature: "Many soft creatures, including mice, octopi, and insects, readily traverse openings barely larger than their largest 'hard' component." The branch of science involving technological developments that mimic natural phenomena is known as biomimetics .

Potential applications for chembots include space exploration, military operations and medical devices that can be implanted in the human body. Chembots might also prove useful for rescue operations in hostile environments such as subterranean or undersea mines and caves.

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